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Just read that MS has patented the "click", which means clicking on something in software to get any kind of action done. Included are double-, tripe, quadruple clicks etc.
In the EC this has no influence at all, but in the States, Canada and Japan law says that now they may go to court for everyone using their patented method without paying what is due.
This included not only softtware, but also thumbnails in websites etc etc...
Just can't understand how a judge could be such a fool!
No risk here in the European Community because, despite heavy lobbying, this law will not be accepted.
If I understand it well, then this is the end of it all. Now the have total control, and the plan to let people "rent" software instead of buying a licence is about to change the Net's anarchy into a supercontrolled organism.
Perhaps Apple can now get a patent for the graphic interface?
Saw that to,but a guy from the patent office says that,the double clicking has to be done in a certain order whilst doing something else first,so MS cannot charge anyone for just double clicking apparently.The patent office researched the MS bid quite thoroughly to make sure it was not just a normal double click etc.Sounds like legal ammo to me to fire in court at sometime at someone after MS steal something of another company.But I sure as hell dont trust the patent office after some of the rediculous ones which have been granted recentlyish.
British Telecom now own the rights {more or less} to hyper linking,they tried to back it up and everyone laughed and it looks like it just faded away.There is a company now also which has the rights to a patent which basically sums up the method a shooping cart uses and shipping etc,aand they are going after sites who wont pay a licensing fee to them,straight up,this is happening,a Canadian company I seem to remember.
Oh last but not least MS now has a patent for a server type system set up in your house which is connected via wires or wireless {think its wireless as well}which has the ability to update an image and load or download images to an object hanging on the wall {was something like that} So they now have the patent basically for a having a hard drive somewhere in your house which updates paintings in an electronic display hung on your wall/walls in your house.
You cannot click without a mouse, and they were not the first who used a mouse, so...
There are other things also:
compuserve owns gif, and charges for it.
seems jpg is also registered now.
I just registered breathing in polluted air. This means that everyone who breathes in polluted air will have to pay me.
As you see, I'm very social-minded as people from the third world won't have to pay. Except of course those would-be rich who work in factories like the one in Bhopal etc.
[:I
Big Brother: we're watching you.
I said that.
I sold stickers in 1984 with that phrase on them, and I sold many.
If all the chicken littles will read the articles, you will see that the patent only applies to handheld computers that run Microsoft's PocketPC software, especially the method of bringing up different features depending on how many times a button is pressed. .
The evil overlord Bill Gates isn't threatening our computing way of life, just getting credit (and $$$) for the technology his company developed. [righton] No matter what technology, you notice almost all software is made to run with the Windows standard...or MAC.
If it weren't for Bill, computers would be more expensive, and a lot of everyday functions we take for granted because he stole and developed them as one cohesive multi-package called Windows would be dozens of separate applications that might or might not all get along in your CPU.3[
(Steps off MS Soapbox and wanders off waving Windows XP handheld flag...)
Rebels should have a cause or they end like James Dean.
If there isn't one:: create one.
Like Lincoln said: "If you can't convince them: confuse them!"
(or was it another president? Prpbably not err...what's his name...and certainly not that other one either...I'm shure it wasn't Jefferson as he was too honest and straightforward...etc etc"
Microsoft patents "the click" 
Linear Mode
